


Reach

by Innibis



Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Genre: F/M, Pilots, The Oath, Trust, inner monologue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-03
Updated: 2018-06-03
Packaged: 2019-05-17 19:23:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14837697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Innibis/pseuds/Innibis
Summary: "Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?" – Robert Browning





	Reach

**Author's Note:**

> Putting the blame squarely on recent conversations with other old school shippers that made me want to possibly start writing again after 72 years off, but in the meantime I'm moving stuff over from LJ. For posterity I guess? It was a miracle I remembered that account’s password. . .

The wild eyes and gripping hands of Kara Thrace are as familiar as a reoccurring dream. The fantasy that has played over and over in his head, from the time before he had risen from the ashes of humanity to become the single remaining CAG in the universe, from that time even further removed when his biggest problem had been being half-way in love with his little brother's girlfriend. It seems appropriate, if wholly unexpected, that they crash together in this pause, somewhere between the pull of a trigger and a bullet through the brain.  
  
He feels her calloused fingers on his neck, digging into his flesh, daring him to break away from the onslaught of her lips and, as usual, his hands move to her face, her hair, to hold her closely but not tightly, to let himself live in the briefness of now. She is his eternal Daphne, the woman he will always pursue but will never catch for she belongs to no one. The thrill of the chase, the reaching for the unattainable, the knowledge of how the potential of people, situations, societies can be juxtaposed against shortfalls; the Way Things Could Be standing in stark contrast to the Way Things Are, with Lee somehow existing in the space between. Humanity vs. Survival, Kara vs. Starbuck, all twisting through his mind until they become one and the same. So, he takes her as he can get her, in the suspended moments of reality with no witnesses to the emotional carnage and bone-deep love that they share.  
  
For all that they have gone through, they are, and always will be, lovers in the most basic meaning of the word; people who love each other. Lee knows that they love each other. He knows Kara knows it as well and there is comfort to be found in that. It may be that their time will never come, that all they will ever have are these isolated pockets where the coin is in the air, these moments where all is possible. But she pulls back from him, her eyes challenging his as her hand grips the back of his neck more firmly and she speaks his most fundamental truth, "All we can count on is you and me."  
  
And it occurs to him as he moves to grasp the gun she hands him, even as he falls back into the role of Apollo as if he is still her CAG and she is still his hot-shot pilot, that perhaps the socially acceptable relationship tangibles of a dead civilization conceal about as much as Roslin's wig when it comes to fiction masking fact. Maybe what really matters is smooth, deadly metal in his palm, a cause to die for, a person to live for, and that unalienable trust that when he says "Cover me," and Kara nods, there is no room between them for doubt.


End file.
